The company was formed by the team behind 92 Energy only weeks after its $64 million takeover by Atha Energy Corp.

Powerhaus managing director Siobhan Lancaster, who held the same role at 92, said the company put together a team of explorers and launched a global search for projects.

“We did that because our view of the uranium market is that the fundamentals that are driving the uranium market are going to be even stronger in the 2030s,” she told The Hole Truth podcast.

“We’re looking to make a big new discovery. The world needs more discoveries and uranium demand is due to double by 2040 from where it is today.”

Click here to watch Siobhan Lancaster discuss Powerhaus on The Hole Truth podcast:

RBC Capital Markets agrees, last month lifting its long-term uranium price target by 10% to US$110 per pound, from around US$95 today.

“Policy catalysts are stacking faster than supply can respond,” analyst Alistair Rankin said.

“The US DOE’s US$17.5 billion commitment to fund 10 new AP1000 reactors, Canada’s plan for 10 new reactors by 2040, and accelerating sovereign and hyper-scaler demand are collectively adding demand that a structurally under-supplied market simply cannot absorb.

“Execution risk is pervasive, and new mines take decades to develop. The term market knows this: fixed-price deals are already transacting at US$100/lb while the published US$95/lb indicator lags reality.”

Lancaster said buying in the uranium market tended to be stronger in the back end of the year.

“I think there’s been a bit of a disconnect between the equities in uranium stocks and where the long-term price currently is sitting,” she said.

“The long-term price is actually sitting at US$97 a pound, which is pretty phenomenal because, when pitching 92 Energy all those years ago, it was sitting at US$38 a pound, so the uplift is tremendous.”

Portfolio assembled

During Powerhaus’ project search, uranium legend John Borshoff introduced Lancaster to Philippe Portella, a geologist who had spent 35 years with French nuclear giant Orano.

Portella pitched the Malbec project in Chubut, Argentina to Powerhaus.

While early stage, uranium mineralisation has already been confirmed.

“This project has potential to host regional-scale roll-front Kazakh-style uranium deposits,” Lancaster said.

“We think there’s a close link and analogy to the Kazakhstan-style uranium deposits, which represent 40% of the world’s uranium production.”

Calcrete-hosted surface mineralisation has already been detected at Malbec.

Powerhaus plans to be on the ground in Argentina within weeks of listing, focused initially on reconnaissance work to follow up earlier grab samples grading up to 771 parts per million uranium oxide.

The company expects to kick off a 5000m diamond drilling program in October, focused on the lower part of the Salamanca Formation, which is considered the most prospective for sandstone-hosted roll-front uranium mineralization amenable to low-cost in-situ recovery.

“If we could repeat what we did at 92 Energy, which was hit uranium on our fourth drill hole ever and have that Gemini discovery, that would be tremendous,” Lancaster said.

Powerhaus also holds the Hidden Bay project in the world-class Athabasca Basin in Canada.

Hidden Bay is considered prospective for basement-hosted uranium mineralisation consistent with styles seen elsewhere in the basin, including NexGen Energy’s Arrow deposit.

Band back together

As well as Lancaster in the MD’s chair, Powerhaus also has Richard Pearce as non-executive chairman, the same role he held at 92 Energy.

Portella has signed on as executive director and chief geologist.

“He has literally been to every single uranium deposit in the world,” Lancaster said.

“He spent a lot of time in Kazakhstan looking at those Kazakh roll-front systems and also a lot of time in Argentina, so he’s the one that’s really realised this connectivity between Kazakhstan and Argentina and the massive potential that there is in Argentina.”

Another uranium geologist, Steve Blower, who was with 92 and also led the discovery of the ultra-high-grade Hurricane deposit in Canada, also sits on the Powerhaus board.

The company’s board also features some of the people behind ASX success story Extract Resources.

Extract went from a A$3 million market capitalisation to a A$2.2 billion buy-out by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp in 2011.

The company’s Husab uranium project in project in Namibia is now the world’s third-largest uranium mine.

One of the geologists behind the discovery, Andrew Penkethman, also known for being the current MD of Ardea Resources, sits on the Powerhaus board, as does uranium marketing expert Sashi Davies, who consulted to Extract and more recently, Boss Energy.